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Thursday, October 24, 2024

For Gaza’s schoolchildren, another year of destruction, loss, and uncertainty

October 24, 2024
Before the war, the joy and excitement at the start of each school year in Gaza were palpable: the buzz of markets filled with children buying their new uniforms and stationery, teachers preparing lessons and decorating their classrooms, and staff welcoming the students with songs and recreational activities on the first day of classes.
Now, nearly two months into the start of the academic year, young students from Gaza are mourning the loss not only of family members, friends, and their homes, but of their education as well.
"Pioneers of Hope", an educational initiative in a displacement camp in Deir Al-Balah. (Ruwaida Amer)
"Pioneers of Hope", an educational initiative in a displacement camp in Deir Al-Balah. (Ruwaida Amer)
Salma Wafi, a 14-year-old Palestinian girl from Gaza City — now displaced in the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone — has been waiting for the war to end so that she can enter high school. “School was the most beautiful part in my life — I miss it every day,” she told +972. “Everywhere else [in the world] kids are back in school. Some of my teachers, friends and classmates whom I used to see all the time at school, were killed. I’ve lost my childhood during this war.”
For Farah Muqdad, 11, a year without school has deeply impacted her social life and sense of self. “My school was on Al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City, and I used to go there every day with my friends. [After school,] we would go to each other’s houses to study for exams.”
Farah lost her older brother Walid in March last year in Rafah and has been displaced several times with her family since the start of the war, now sheltering in Al-Mawasi. “School wasn’t just lessons or studying, it was a very different life. Now all of this is in the past: we face extremely difficult conditions, unable to buy food, so I must look for work to survive and help my family.”
According to the UN, 87 percent of the school buildings in Gaza have been either partially or entirely destroyed by Israeli strikes, and some have been converted into Israeli military bases. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that over 10,600 children and more than 400 teachers have been killed in Israeli military operations, while more than 15,300 students and 2,400 teachers have been injured.
Today, more than 625,000 deeply traumatized school-aged children in Gaza are being deprived of their right to an education — what 19 independent UN experts and rapporteurs described as part of “scholasticide,” a deliberate effort to destroy the Palestinian education system. Meanwhile, a new UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) report warns that Israel’s ongoing aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza could set back children and young people’s education by up to five years.
As Ahmed Ayesh Al-Najjar, director of public relations at the Education Ministry in Gaza, notes, the widespread and systematic destruction of educational infrastructure and the killing of thousands of students, teachers, and educational staff “has made it nearly impossible for the ministry to restore the educational process to its previous state.”
On Sept. 9, the Education Ministry in Ramallah launched an online platform to provide remote lessons for students in Gaza. Sadeq Khadour, the ministry’s spokesperson, told +972 that “around 200,000 students registered for the online classes. We consider this a big achievement because last year there was no teaching at all.” 
But it is unclear how many students have been able to participate in such lessons, given the frequent internet and power outages across the Strip. For Maram Al-Farra, a 38-year-old mother of four, the idea of remote classes as a substitute for in-person education is unacceptable. “I feel that they [the ministry] think this war is simple or like previous wars. We lost our homes, and we live in a tent in Al-Mawasi. Using the internet in these circumstances is impossible.”
Suha Al-Abdullah, a 40-year-old mother and teacher, also doubted the utility of this new initiative. “I cannot follow these lessons, and neither can my children, because we need the internet and more than one phone to use,” she explained. “These things are not just difficult but impossible. As a teacher, I cannot provide complete and useful information to my students except for in the [physical] classroom.”
Inside the tent schools, where ‘so many are eager to enroll’
With the Ministry unable to implement an effective plan for the school year, teachers in Gaza have been left to try to organize their own educational programs — and some have taken it upon themselves to set up makeshift schools in shelters and camps across the Strip.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” This is how Du’aa Qadih, 25, begins her day’s English lessons with her students, who sit criss-cross on the floor. “A little girl tells me that she wants to be a doctor, to help her brother or her wounded mother, and another dreams of becoming an engineer or journalist. Every student of mine has a big dream for when the war stops.”
Qadih, a graduate of the English Language and Education Departments at the Islamic University in Gaza and a current Master’s student in translation at Al-Azhar University, was displaced from Shuja’iya at the start of the war and forced to relocate three times, before settling in a camp in Deir Al-Balah in May. It was upon her arrival in that camp that Qadih started to fear the war’s toll on the educational prospects of Gaza’s children.
“As a teacher, I realized the danger of forgoing education for more than 8 months, and the importance of continuing the educational process,” she recalled to +972. “Our students are the future generation, and rebuilding Gaza will only happen through knowledge and learning.” Qadih started a classroom in one tent, but today more than 550 students from first through 12th grade are participating in her program, and she and a team of volunteers have secured several tents.
Qadih admits that her work was never easy. “At first, I faced the terror of working with children who were exposed to loss and deprivation, who had grown up under bombs and airstrikes.” Many of these students had lost at least one family member, as well as former peers and teachers. Under these circumstances, she decided to begin by organizing simple social activities, and gradually return to education through play.
“Activities and competitions encourage children to focus and think,” Qadih explained. Before teaching the academic subjects, “I had to restore their confidence and put a smile on their faces.”
Hala Za’rab, 9, who was displaced from Khan Younis, expressed her appreciation for Qadih’s classes. “Ms. Du’aa brought back to our minds what we used to study at our school which the occupation bombed at the beginning of the war. I miss every detail of it [school] from the time I wake up to the time I return home.”
Qadih, too, insisted that it is not just the students who have benefitted from her initiative. “I know very well that these children may not survive this war. But I try to instill hope in their hearts that they will one day become who they want to be,” she affirmed. “And their aspirations fill me with hope as well.”
For Muhammad Al-Khudari, a 38-year-old teacher from Rafah, what started in February as homeschooling for his three children has expanded into a community-wide effort to teach Arabic. Al-Khudari was expelled by the Israeli army from Al-Shifa Hospital in November 2023, after surviving a strike on his home in Shuja’iya. He and his family sought refuge in Rafah and were later forced to move to Deir Al-Balah. But with each displacement, he made sure to bring his educational materials with him. “My son asked me to let a friend in the neighboring tent study with us, and I then decided to teach the children in the camp what I teach my own children,” he explained to +972.
With his engaging methods of storytelling, making use of puppets and colorful illustrations, Al-Khudari’s Arabic language initiative has attracted a group of 60 students in Deir Al-Balah. While Muhammad focuses on teaching Arabic, a team of volunteers has joined him to teach other basic subjects. “We all agreed to provide whatever we can to help students follow up on their studies, especially in the primary school grades, as they need constant reinforcement to consolidate their previous knowledge.”
Even in the face of immense difficulties, including the lack of school chairs, books, notebooks, and ongoing Israeli bombardment, Al-Khudari intends to continue teaching. “Interacting with the children gives me hope for a better future,” he said. “It reminds me that we are a people who deserve life.”
One of the most remarkable educational programs is the Al-Awael School, established by Leila Wafi, a 42-year-old blind teacher and resident of Al-Mawasi who holds a PhD in Educational Sciences. “I noticed the impact the war had on the students’ skills and how they were forgetting the basics of their educational subjects,” she told +972.
On a sandy piece of land in Al-Mawasi, Wafi set up three classrooms made of tarps and plastic. Al-Awael operates in three daily shifts: one in the morning and two in the evening, with boys and girls separated into three-day periods for each group to reach as many students as possible. Although each classroom originally fit only 20 students, Wafi and her colleagues managed to expand them to accommodate around 74 students.
Now, a team of 80 volunteer instructors teach a full curriculum for the first through sixth grade levels. Wafi organized the schedules, secured the necessary stationary, and condensed educational materials for the teachers to streamline the teaching process in a way that matches the school’s actual capabilities.
“We have a waiting list of 500 students who want to join the school,” Wafi noted. “I ran the school as if it were a normal academic year, under normal circumstances. It included a full curriculum, homework, exams, certificates, a ceremony to honor outstanding students, and gifts.” It is for this reason, she said, that so many were eager to enroll.
The mother of fifth-grader Iman Abu Asr, who was displaced from the Al-Nasr area west of Gaza City to Al-Mawasi, hopes that the Education Ministry will officially recognize the results of Leila’s program. “My daughter studied regularly at this school despite all the circumstances, and she was able to regain a lot of information. It was a dream for us for my daughter to join something like this during the war.”
A temporary reprieve
These tent schools — albeit scattered and informal — have been a critical lifeline for children, parents, and teachers themselves during the past year. Some worry, however, that they won’t be sustainable for much longer. For Suha Al-Abdullah, who has worked as a teacher in tents in Deir Al-Balah and Al-Mawasi, “the teaching tents are difficult [to begin with], and they’re not a permanent [solution]. We are approaching winter and no one will come to the lessons.”
She also criticized the Education Ministry for failing to coordinate with the teachers and program leaders to help them continue their work. “These are initiatives from us as teachers to save [future] generations,” she explained, “but the ministry has not communicated with any of us or supported them in order to develop a plan to allow the children to keep benefitting.”
Sadeq Khadour, the ministry’s spokesperson in Ramallah, told +972 that he is aware of the challenges students and their families face in Gaza, and affirmed that the ministry has been trying to aid private educational programs while expanding access to its own online platforms. “We are trying to find solutions for the students who do not have electronic devices. Our plan is comprehensive, and it includes supporting the private teaching initiatives on the ground.”
But as the Israeli assault intensifies throughout the Strip, and particularly in the north, there is only so much that the ministry and individual teachers can do. The number of students and teachers killed by Israeli forces, both in direct attacks and from indirect causes such as illness, hunger, and lack of access to necessary healthcare, continues to rise. Moreover, the constant displacement of Gazan families, many of whom have ended up far from their areas of residence, makes it difficult for the ministry to keep track of the number of students in each educational zone.
Before the Israeli army’s latest major offensive in northern Gaza, Amani Aby Raya, a 37-year-old teacher from Jabalia refugee camp and the director of a kindergarten that was destroyed by Israeli forces in the first week of the war, turned her kindergarten into a school for children aged 5 to 8. According to Aby Raya, the school served more than 350 children, who were divided into nine classes and received 10 hours of instruction per week.
“The place is not suitable, as children study without chairs, tables, or even toilets and sit on mats in a semi-standing prayer hall in high temperatures amid the spread of insects,” she explained. But “children, like the people of Gaza, have adapted to this harsh environment, and their desire for education pushes them to continue studying.”
More difficult than the education itself, Aby Raya said, is the effort to provide psychological relief and therapy for behavioral problems, as most of the students she and her colleagues have become homeless and lost parents, siblings, other relatives and classmates.
Through her initiative, Aby Raya hoped to “lift children out of the tragic educational and psychological reality that was imposed on them.” She and her colleagues “tried to triumph by raising the children’s voices and repeating the phrases of the lessons so that their collective voice is louder than the noise [of the drones] overhead.” But Aby Raya was forced to leave Jabalia last week, as Israel besieged the camp. She is now in Gaza City and all educational initiatives in the north have ceased.
 
Qassam Muaddi
October 23, 2024
 People make their way amid the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment of the the Jabalia refugee on August 31, 2024. (Photo: Hadi Daoud / APA Images)
 People make their way amid the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment of the the Jabalia refugee on August 31, 2024. (Photo: Hadi Daoud / APA Images)
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians across northern Gaza have been forced on a death march by the Israeli army since Monday, October 21. Northern Gaza is being emptied of its inhabitants, and one of Israel’s strategies in achieving this goal is to take out the area’s few remaining social institutions: hospitals.
As part of its ongoing offensive on northern Gaza, the Israeli army has been trying to clear out the entire area north of Gaza City for the past 18 days. At least 200,000 people continue to stay there, many of them fearing, according to local testimonies, that they will be targeted on the way south or in Israeli-designated “safe zones,” which have been consistently bombarded over recent months. The ongoing siege includes a second siege-within-the-siege on the Jabalia refugee camp, accompanied by a massive bombing and shelling campaign that is forcing tens of thousands of people to leave their homes. Many of them have headed to Beit Lahia, and particularly to Kamal Adwan Hospital. Over the past 18 days, the hospital has been issuing daily calls for help, warning of an imminent humanitarian catastrophe.
The Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia is one of three functioning hospitals in the northern Gaza governorate. The hospital is the only fully functional medical center in the north, with a specialized neonatal section for newborns.
The two other hospitals in Gaza are barely functional. The Indonesian Hospital in the town of Sheikh Zayed went out of services last week after Israeli troops besieged it and invaded its surroundings. Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, smaller in size, has suspended most of its services and only functions at a limited capacity. On Tuesday, October 22, the al-Awda Hospital’s director, Bakr Abu Safiyeh, told al-Ghad TV that Israeli quadcopter drones were opening fire directly on the hospital.
Dr. Baker said that Israeli quadcopters were also opening fire on anybody moving in the streets, including ambulances. According to the hospital director, an Israeli strike targeted an ambulance carrying a mother who had just given birth. The mother was killed, Dr. Baker said, and the baby was later found alive by rescue teams and was taken to Kamal Adwan Hospital’s neonatal section.
Why targeting hospitals is the key to emptying northern Gaza
Named after Kamal Adwan, a Palestinian resistance leader assassinated by Israel in Beirut in 1973, the hospital has become a central destination for the wounded and the displaced. Like most other hospitals in Gaza over the past year of genocidal war, Kamal Adwan Hospital is the only remaining public space in northern Gaza that offers services and provides shelter, representing the backbone of Gazan civil society and social cohesion. That is why Israel is targeting it, with the aim of forcibly expelling the population in service of the Israeli plan to empty the north. This has now come to be called “the Generals’ Plan.”
Two weeks before Israel began the current siege, Netanyahu told Israeli lawmakers that he was considering the “Generals’ plan,” so named for the proposal put forward by senior Israeli army officials in early September based on the vision of retired Israeli general Giora Eiland, who wrote an Op-Ed a year ago explaining how northern Gaza should be emptied of the entire population through mass starvation and extermination.
The plan is an enhanced version of what Israel has already been doing for the past year, including targeting and forcibly evacuating hospitals. Israeli forces raided al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for the first time in November, when the compound and its surroundings were crowded with displaced families, and forced medics, patients, and displaced people to leave. But in February, when Israeli forces began to withdraw from parts of Gaza, including Gaza City, Palestinians returned to al-Shifa and began to operate parts of it again as displaced families began to take over its spaces once more.
Then, in April, Israeli forces invaded al-Shifa a second time in a raid that lasted several weeks with the purpose of accelerating social collapse in Gaza City. The Israeli army combed the hospital building by building and floor by floor, destroying equipment and, according to survivor testimonies gathered by Mondoweiss at the time, executing hundreds of civil government employees and separating people into differently-colored bracelet. At the end of the operation, Dr. Marwan Abu Saada, Deputy Director of al-Shifa, told UN News that the destruction of al-Shifa “took out the heart of the health system in the Gaza Strip,” adding that “al-Shifa is finished forever.”
In December 2023, two months into the Israeli genocide in Gaza, Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan hospital and forced medical staff, patients, and displaced civilians to evacuate. The hospital resumed partial services in July after joint efforts by the World Health Organization and other international parties, coupled with pressure on Israel to allow limited quantities of humanitarian aid into the north.
As Israel set its eyes on Gaza’s northernmost governorate to execute Eiland’s plan, Kamal Adwan Hospital is now the last bastion of Palestinian steadfastness in the north. This makes it a prime target in the ongoing Israeli offensive. Kamal Adwan came close to completely shutting down multiple times, mainly due to the lack of fuel for power generators, saved every time by intensified pressure by international parties on Israel to allow limited quantities of fuel to pass through
Kamal Adwan Hospital weathers siege and overcapacity
“We need blood units, shrouds for the dead, doctors, and food,” Dr. Husam Abu Safiyeh, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, told the media on Wednesday, October 23, signaling that Israeli forces had cut off internet services from the area.
The day before, on October 22, Dr. Abu Safiyeh told the media that the hospital had run out of blood units, had a shortage of medical staff, that the available staff was hungry and exhausted, and that the power generators were about to run out of fuel.
Dr. Abu Safiyeh also indicated that the hospital was treating 130 wounded, including 14 on ventilators, and that medics were unable to evacuate the wounded from the streets because of the risk of being targeted by Israeli quadcopter fire. He also called upon international entities to open a humanitarian route to evacuate the wounded, and described his hospital as “a mass grave.”
A week earlier, on October 16, Dr. Abu Safiyeh posted a video he took inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital’s newborn children’s section. The video showed babies inside incubators and Palestinian nurses caring for them. “These are children with difficult cases, and more cases are on the way, as we have scheduled cesarean births for tomorrow,” he said while filming.
“This baby girl here arrived after her family was targeted by [an Israeli] strike,” said Abu Safiyeh while filming one particular newborn. “Her mother and father were martyred, as well as her grandmother, and she is now alone with a wound to the head and a secondary inflammation,” he explained. “If fuel doesn’t arrive [for power generators] there will be a humanitarian catastrophe for these children,” he warned.
In the hospital’s sections, the medical staff described their working conditions. “There are cases of burning, internal bleeding, skull fractures, and limb amputations,” Dr. Ameen Abu Amshah, serving at Kamal Adwan, told Mondoweiss. “Out of every 10 to 15 wounded we receive at once, an average of seven are urgent cases for surgery. We just don’t have the capacity for all this, and we are forced to prioritize the cases that can be saved” said Dr. Abu Amshah.
“The occupation army has been ordering doctors to leave, including through phone calls,” said Abu Amshah. “This is an extermination. Northern Gaza is being exterminated, Jabalia is being exterminated, and Kamal Adwan hospital is being exterminated, but we will not leave.”
Forced death march
On Tuesday, October 23, Israeli drones dropped leaflets and aired voice messages at Palestinians who remained in the surroundings of Kamal Adwan and inside its premises, ordering them to leave. Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians were being gathered and forced to move out of other shelters after arresting men among them. Thousands were left stranded in the street far away from the last standing public facilities and forced to take the road yet again at gunpoint, as shown by footage aired by the Israeli army.
 
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew into Israel on Tuesday pressing for a ceasefire in Gaza following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
But a ceasefire was the last thing on the mind of the Knesset members, government ministers and hundreds of Israeli settlers who convened a day earlier to plan the future of the enclave.
These plans did not include any kind of negotiation. There was one subject under discussion at the conference, timed to coincide with the annual Sukkot religious holiday which marks the exodus of the Jews from Egypt.
Israel’s settlement of Gaza.
The event, organised by the settler organisation Nahala, was held just three kilometres from the Gaza frontier.
Significantly it was in a closed military zone, and this conference was held under army protection.
The regular thud of outgoing artillery fire interrupted speeches, and was greeted by applause and cries of, “God bless our brave soldiers.”
Many of the men present carried machine guns or pistols.
“In the event of a terrorist infiltration,” boomed the PA announcer, “we ask you please not to fire your weapon. Let the security handle it. This is for everyone’s safety.”
Those present at the conference included supporters from the United States, South Africa and Australia.
One great grandmother from Melbourne wore a sticker saying in Hebrew that “Gaza is part of Israel” and on the other “Kahane was right”.
A number of those at the conference carried stickers celebrating Meir Kahane, the late American-born rabbi and convicted terrorist who advocated that Palestiniansshould be forced out of Israel.
Nahala leader Daniella Weiss, one of the heroes of the conference, boasted that families were ready to move to the edge of the Gaza border, claiming that Nahala had already entered a deal worth “millions of dollars” for temporary housing units as a preliminary to settlement of the Strip.
She predicted: “You will witness how Jews go to Gaza and Arabs disappear from Gaza.”
Gaza seafront ‘a bargain’
Which would be excellent business for Or Yomtovyan, an activist for Israeli security minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Jewish Power party.
Yomtovyan is in the property business. Speaking outside the Jewish Power sukkot (tent) he told MEE that settling Gaza would be “a good solution for the real estate problem. We are a small country and there’s big land here we can use.”
Asked when Gaza could be occupied, he replied: “First things first. As soon as possible.”
Asked by MEE how much seafront property in Gaza might be worth, he replied “it will be a bargain. Properties in Tel Aviv next to the sea cost 20-50 million shekels [$5m-$13m]. Here we can sell cheap.”
Yomtovyan said he was 16th on Jewish Power’s parliamentary candidates list, and predicted that its leader, Ben Gvir, would be Israel’s next prime minister after Netanyahu.
It would be a serious error to dismiss the conference as a fringe event reflecting the wild fantasies of Israel’s settler movement. Big money and top politicians have a stake in the future of Gaza.
The event was attended by senior government ministers and Knesset members, including several from Netanyahu’s Likud party.
Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also in charge of civil administration in the West Bank and has called for Israel to annex the occupied Palestinian territory, was there.
But Ben Gvir was the star of the show, joining in communal dancing and hailed by many others present as the next prime minister.
Ben Gvir maintained that Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October last year, in which about 1,200 Israelis were killed and hundreds more taken hostage, had changed the mindset of Israelis.
“We are the owners of this land,” he said. “They understand that when Israel acts like the rightful owners of this land, that is what brings results.”
He told his audience that Israel would encourage what he called the “voluntary transfer of all Gazan citizens”, adding “We will offer them the opportunity to move to other countries because that land belongs to us”.
Ben Gvir and Smotrich are senior members of the Likud-led coalition that governs Israel.
And recent history shows that these two settler leaders get what they want.
This is partly a result of growing popular support, but above all because Netanyahu’s government would fall without them. Ben Gvir’s vision of a Palestinian-free Gaza is backed by raw power.
Nahala leader Daniella Weiss alluded to this new settler power when she referenced Netanyahu’s statement earlier this year that the idea of Gaza settlement was “unrealistic”.
She pointed out that many had made the same observation of the West Bank, which is today overrun by Israeli settlers.
“We have the political support, the public support and the experience of 55 years of settling Judea [and] Samaria [the occupied West Bank] and the Golan Heights. Three hundred and 50 settlements . We have accumulated a lot of experience to do this politically.”
As far as she is concerned, the Palestinians must leave Gaza. She told a crowd of international journalists that they should go “to England, to Africa, to Turkey. Just as people of Afghanistan moved during the war, such as people of Syria, such as people from Ukraine.”
The Palestinians, emphasised Weiss “will not stay in Gaza by no means”.
‘No mercy’
Likud MPs supported much of what Weiss had to say.
Knesset member Ariel Kallner told MEE there should be “settlements in North Gaza and strategic places like the Philadelphi corridor [a strip of land along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt]”, adding that many members of Likud supported the plan.
He told MEE that Gaza “made this massacre when receiving so many privileges they never had before.
“We need to understand what is radical Islam, what is the Palestinian Authority. They supported October 7th. They support terrorists. We need the world to understand such regimes should be eliminated. The civilisation should understand that these barbarian regimes and ideologies are enemies of civilisation.”
Asked what he thought about the so-called “Generals’ Plan” currently in operation in north Gaza, which many see as a strategy of ethnic cleansing to drive Palestinians out of the territory or kill those who stay, Kallner said it was “a very, very reasonable plan”.
“There are also other plans to eliminate the evil Hamas regime,” he added, stressing the need to weaken Hamas by taking control of humanitarian aid.
Another Likud Knesset member, Tally Gotliv, also threw her weight behind Gaza settlements, telling MEE: “I made it clear from the first day of the war that one of our goals should be the occupation of north Gaza.”
When asked by MEE whether Netanyahu supported the plan, Gotliv replied: “I have no doubt that he is supporting the settlement of Gaza because it will bring more security not just for the area around Gaza Strip but for Israel.“
MEE asked her what should happen to Gaza residents.
“The people in the north of Gaza allowed the Hamas fighters to go through on October 7th,” she said.
“I have no mercy. The only mercy we have is that we give them the chance to leave… They should leave and go to the south.”
The settlers did not have it all their own way. As we arrived in the car park, a number of Israelis waving yellow flags in protest against the conference had gathered to read out the names of the hostages and accuse the organisers of sacrificing their lives in pursuit of war in Gaza.
On the way to the conference, we drove through areas that had been devastated on 7 October last year.
The event gained extra symbolic significance because last year the Sukkot thanksgiving celebration coincided with the Hamas-led attacks.
We passed close to the Be’eri Kibbutz, where 101 civilians and 31 security personnel were killed. At several points, pilgrims come to pay tribute to the victims.
In the distance smoke billowed from the Jabalia refugee camp, currently under attack by an Israeli tank assault and air strikes which have killed dozens of people in recent days, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Israelis had parked their cars at one vantage point to watch as Gaza continued to burn.

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